1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasound inspection apparatus detachably connected to an endoscope.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical apparatuses for performing required inspection or diagnosis by inserting them into a body to be inspected include an endoscope for observing the inside of a body cavity and an ultrasound inspection apparatus for obtaining information about textures inside a body. An ultrasound endoscope unitarily combining the endoscope with the ultrasound inspection apparatus is also known. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-52138, a known ultrasound endoscope is formed so that an ultrasonic scanning portion having an ultrasound transducer attached thereto is arranged at a distal end portion of an insertion unit and an inclined wall surface is formed in the base side of the ultrasonic scanning portion so as to form illuminating means and observing means forming an endoscope observing structure therein. On the inclined wall surface, a treating instrument guide channel is also provided for leading out a puncture instrument, etc., for puncturing within a field of ultrasound observing vision by the ultrasound transducer.
In such a manner, using of the ultrasound endoscope enables to inspect an inner wall of a body cavity and the like, with an endoscopic observing unit by inserting the insertion unit to a predetermined position. When disease or the like is discovered by observation with the endoscope, the state of textures inside the body, etc., can be inspected by operating the ultrasound transducer so as to perform ultrasonic scanning of the portion in question. From the result of the ultrasonic scanning, when medical treatment or sampling of texture, etc., is required, an appropriate operation can be taken by inserting a puncture instrument through the guide channel under observation by the ultrasound transducer.
In the ultrasound endoscope of the type, the ultrasonic observing means is undetachably formed in combination with endoscope observing means undetachably, and it is suitable for using in the case of combining endoscopic inspection with ultrasound inspection. However, since the ultrasonic observing means is located in front of the endoscope observing means in the ultrasound endoscope, the field of view by the endoscope observing means is extremely limited. A treating instrument outlet portion is arranged at the position of the endoscopic observing means, so that operations of treating instruments are also limited. By these reasons, the ultrasound endoscope is not generally used when it is only for the endoscopic inspection.
A structure is known in that, when required, ultrasound inspection can be used in combination with endoscopic inspection without limiting the function as an endoscope. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-42231 discloses a so-called ultrasound probe inserted through an endoscope that is formed to be led into body cavities, etc., by inserting into an guide channel for inserting treating instruments of an endoscope. The ultrasonic probe of the type is formed of an ultrasonic scanning unit provided with an ultrasound transducer, a flexible cord arranged in line with the ultrasonic scanning unit, and a connector disposed at the base end of the flexible cord. The flexible cord is to be inserted through the guide channel for inserting treating instruments of an endoscope. The connector disposed at the base end of the flexible cord is formed to be detachably connected to the ultrasonic scanning unit directly or through a connecting adapter, etc. The ultrasonic scanning unit includes operating means for scanning the ultrasound transducer in a rotating direction or an axial direction.
In the ultrasonic probe inserted through the endoscope, the transducer placed in the ultrasonic scanning unit are formed of single-chip transducer so as to scan mechanically in a rotating direction or a linear direction. When large-sized transducer chip is provided by using the ultrasonic scanning unit having a larger diameter than the inner diameter of the treating instrument guide channel, from front-end of the treating instrument guide channel, the ultrasound probe is inserted thereinto.
As ultrasound inspection systems, in general, there is an electronic scanning type in addition to a mechanical scanning type. An ultrasound transducer of the electronic scanning type formed by arranging a number of rectangular transducer chips in a row, each transducer chip forming the ultrasound transducer is sequentially actuated so as to be scanned in the arrangement direction of the transducer chips. Such the ultrasound transducer of the electronic type has an advantage as making various wave phases by controlling emission timing of each transducer chip. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-52138 discloses an ultrasound endoscope having an ultrasound transducer performing ultrasonic scanning of this type. Aside such the ultrasound endoscope formed in indivisible combination of ultrasonic observing means with endoscopic observing means, an ultrasound inspection apparatus detachable from an endoscope formed so as not to limit the original function as an endoscope, that is the ultrasound probe inserted through the endoscope as disclosed in the foregoing Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-42231, cannot be constituted as the electronic scanning type. There are such reasons for this fact as that the outer diameter of a flexible cord is limited because it is inserted into a treating instrument guide channel so that a number of wires connected to a number of transducer chips cannot be passed therethrough, and that it is extremely difficult that the ultrasound transducer is steadily held in an assembled state in an endoscope because the ultrasound transducer of the electronic scanning type is extremely larger in size and weight compared with a single-chip transducer.
In view of the above-mentioned problems, it is an object of the present invention to expand the utility of an endoscope by detachably assembled into an endoscope with an ultrasound inspection apparatus having an electronically scanning ultrasound transducer.
It is another object of the present invention to enable one endoscope to be used for the independent inspection by the endoscope, for the combination of endoscopic inspection and ultrasound inspection, and further for the independent ultrasound inspection as well.
It is another object of the present invention to enable one ultrasound inspection apparatus to be assembled for plural endoscopes to be used.
It is another object of the present invention to enable a puncture instrument led out from a treating instrument outlet portion of an endoscope to be securely brought within a field of ultrasonic observing vision when an ultrasound inspection apparatus having an ultrasound transducer for electronically scanning is detachably connected to the endoscope.
It is another object of the present invention to enable an ultrasound transducer detachably attached to an endoscope to be intimately contacted with a body cavity""s wall, etc.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, according to the present invention, there is provided an ultrasound inspection apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic scanning portion having an ultrasound transducer attached thereto in the front end side for performing ultrasonic scanning by arranging transducer chips in an array arrangement; an endoscope-placing portion disposed at a base side position of the ultrasonic scanning portion to be mounted for a distal end portion of an insertion unit of an endoscope; an endoscope-fixing portion for detachably fixing the distal end portion placed on the endoscope-placing portion; and a signal cable formed of wires extending from the base end position of the endoscope-placing portion.
When performing ultrasound inspection, a puncture instrument is generally used in combined therewith. That is, as a result of the ultrasound inspection, for sampling of texture or medical treatment, etc., the puncture instrument should be punctured into a body to be inspected. When the puncture instrument is operated inside a body cavity, the observation with an endoscope is required and the observation by ultrasonic scanning is further needed after it is punctured into the body. An guide channel for inserting treating instruments of the endoscope is always brought into the observing field. When the ultrasound inspection apparatus is assembled to the endoscope, the positional relationship to the ultrasonic scanning portion in the ultrasound inspection apparatus is also important in order to bring the treating instrument within the ultrasound inspection field.
Therefore, a guide portion in a form of a guide groove is preferably disposed between the ultrasonic scanning portion and the endoscope-placing portion to be communicated with a treating instrument guide channel formed in the distal end portion, the guide groove for guiding a treating instrument led out from the treating instrument guide channel toward a scanning region of the ultrasound transducer. More preferably, a guide pipe is disposed between the ultrasonic scanning portion and the endoscope-placing portion, wherein the guide pipe is linked to the treating instrument guide channel of the distal end portion, the guide pipe for guiding a treating instrument led out from the guide channel toward a scanning region of the ultrasound transducer, and the guide pipe formed to be insertable into the guide channel by a predetermined length.
The ultrasonic scanning portion is formed by arranging transducer chips in an array arrangement. When it is assembled to the endoscope, the inspecting field by the endoscope and the leading-out direction of the treating instrument is the axially forward direction. Therefore, it is desirable that the ultrasound inspection field by the ultrasonic scanning portion is located in the obliquely front. For this purpose, a front inclined surface slanting downward toward the tip side may be formed in the front-end portion of the endoscope-placing portion and the ultrasonic scanning portion may be arranged on the front inclined surface. In order to bring the treating instrument led out from the endoscope apart from the transducer chips forming the ultrasonic scanning portion, the transducer chips may be arranged only on the front inclined surface.
The endoscope-fixing portion has a mechanism for fixing the ultrasound inspection apparatus to the distal end portion of the endoscope. As a specific structure thereof, the endoscope-fixing portion may be formed of curved elastic plate pieces arranged with both lateral ends of the endoscope-placing portion, the elastic plate pieces connecting the distal end portion of the endoscope thereto so as to embrace the distal end portion. The endoscope-fixing portion may be formed by an elastic ring, which is a different member from a body unit formed by uniting the ultrasonic scanning portion and the endoscope-placing portion, to be detacahbly attached to the body unit together with the distal end portion of the endoscope. Further, the endoscope-fixing portion may be formed of a closed loop shaped ring portion arranged with the endoscope-placing portion. When the endoscope-fixing portion is formed of elastic plate pieces or the closed loop shaped ring portion, the endoscope-placing portion may be provided with a extracted portion rising obliquely toward the base end of the endoscope-fixing portion, thereby even if the endoscope-fixing portion is slipped off from the distal end portion of the endoscope, it can be easily recovered from the inside the body cavity because there is not a difference in level on the transitional portion from the endoscope-placing portion to the endoscope-fixing portion.
Then, as a structure of the signal cable, when the signal cable has a flat cross-section and is placed so that the flat plane of the signal cable faces in a direction orthogonal to a one-way curving direction of the angle portion at least in a position along the angle portion, during the curving of the angle portion, the signal cable is curved smoothly following the curving, so that the angle portion cannot be twisted. The signal cable from the endoscope-placing portion may be divided into two bundles so that these bundles may be arranged at substantially symmetrical positions relative to the center line of one direction of curving the angle portion at least in a position along the angle portion, so that the similar function can be obtained. Although the two bundles of the signal cable may be extended as they are, they can be combined into one at a position passing through the angle portion for the simpleness of the routings.
The medical treatment of a diseased portion, etc., is performed in the state that the ultrasound inspection apparatus is attached to the insertion unit by protruding the puncture instrument from the leading-out route for treating instruments so as to puncture into a body. For this purpose, the puncture instrument is required to bring it within the ultrasound inspection field. To this end, ultrasound beams emitted from the ultrasound transducer may be arranged at a position across at least part of a passage of the treating instrument. Also, the ultrasonic scanning portion may be arranged in a position lower than the angle portion while an emitting and receiving surface of the ultrasound transducer may face in a direction orthogonal to the center line of vertically curved the angle portion, so that the puncture instrument is more securely brought within a ultrasound beams emitted from the ultrasound transducer. For this purpose, the endoscope-placing portion may be provided with a portion for positioning the distal end portion of the insertion unit in its circumferential direction.
Furthermore, in accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasound inspection apparatus to be detachably connected to an endoscope, the ultrasound inspection apparatus being attached to the endoscope for performing electronic ultrasonic scanning interchangeably with an end cap attached to a distal end portion forming an insertion unit of the endoscope so as to cover the front end face of the distal end portion, the end cap having a nozzle for spraying washing fluid toward an observing window, the ultrasound inspection apparatus comprising: an endoscope connecting mechanism formed of an end cover for covering the front face of the insertion unit and having a nozzle attached to the outer surface thereof, and a peripheral barrel arranged with the end cover for covering the outer peripheral portion of the distal end portion; and an ultrasonic scanning mechanism protruded from the end cover toward the front and having an ultrasound transducer attached thereto for performing ultrasonic scanning by arranging transducer chips in an array arrangement.
In this case, the ultrasonic scanning mechanism may have a planar or convex-curved inclined surface slanting downward from the end cover toward the front, and transducer chips consisting of the ultrasound transducer may be preferably arranged on the inclined surface in the inclining direction. Also, the endoscope connecting mechanism may be provided with fixing means formed on the outer surface of a peripheral barrel thereof for detachably fixing the endoscope connecting mechanism on the outer peripheral surface of the distal end portion of the insertion unit.
These and other objects, constitutions, and effects of the present invention will become more apparent from the following embodiments of the present invention described with reference to the drawings. Of course the present invention is not understood by limiting to the embodiments.